Attitudes and opinions of French general practitioners towards tobacco

Objective -To assess attitudes and opinions of French general practitioners towards tobacco. Design-A postal survey in 1991 of a national sample of 4318 French general practitioners using a questionnaire de signed by the World Health Organisation and the International Union against Tu berculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD) for health professionals. Results -The mean age of the sample was 41 + 9 years, 80 % of the practitioners were males. The prevalence of smoking was 32% (21% daily, 11% occasional). There were more never-smokers among females (41%vs25%) and more in the age group 45. Of daily smokers 54% claimed that they had made at least one attempt to stop smoking but only 32% expected to have stopped within five years of the survey. Practitioners had a good knowledge of tobacco-related respiratory diseases but underestimated the risk of cardiovascu lar diseases. Only 37% (23% of daily smokers) would counsel a patient to stop smoking if he did not have a smoking related illness and did not himself raise the question; 62% thought they had suf ficient knowledge to advise their patients on stopping smoking. Conclusions - These results, similar to those of the IUATLD worldwide survey of medical students, showed a lower preva lence of smoking in younger compared to older doctors and also demonstrated the influence of personal smoking on the attitude of practitioners towards smok ing patients.